Alaska Cruise – Day 8 (Seattle)
Forget the lies they tell you about how long you have to wait to get on and off the ship. During our Holland America cruise, I don't think we waited more than 10 or 15 minutes to embark or disembark at any port.
From what I overheard from more-experienced cruisers, we were fortunate and wise to select Holland America as our cruise provider. Apparently they just offer a higher standard of service than, say, Carnival. (Again, from what I overheard.)
You know, I'd totally do this again. I'd even cruise back to Alaska again, now that I know what to expect, how to pack, and what to plan for.
For instance, I'd take more books. For the evenings. I didn't mind the hoi polloi on board ship quite as much after I'd retreated to my room for a few hours of peace every evening. (There was one man…we called him Peaceful Man…who seemed to be sitting on deck reading every time we were out there. If the temperature had been even 10 degrees warmer, I'd probably have done the same thing on our "at sea" days.)
I'd pack a stocking cap so I could stop having to catch glimpses of myself in mirrors and windows and realizing that I looked like I'd come through a hurricane backwards. (My hair hates humidity.)
I'd leave the make-up at home. I stopped wearing it on the second day since it was so wet it was continually running off my face.
I still wouldn't bother with the camera. I felt somewhat sorry for the people lumbered with expensive and notional equipment. They spent the entire trip staring through a viewfinder at patches of fog and clouds.
I'd eat in the "fancy" restaurant more often. I quite liked chatting with the other passengers over a meal.
I wouldn't bother with the "formal" evenings, though. I didn't bother this time and I wouldn't do it in the future. I wasn't cruising to pretend I was a 40s film star, draped glamorously over the rail of a romantic ship. I went to Alaska for the adventure of it.
And, to that end, I might brave the threat of buffalo-sized mosquitoes and take one of the walking shore excursions. I avoided those this time because of the stories about being eaten alive by mosquitoes and no-see-ums, but the weather we had was so wet that not a bug was to be seen the entire time.
But I'm totally going on a cruise again. I had a great time.
Alaska Cruise – Day 7 (Somewhere At Sea, then in Victoria B.C.)
Ahhhh…. The joys of vacation! Today, owing to the time change, I slept until 9:30 a.m.! I haven't slept past 7:15 since I got on board.
Today's biggest highlight – nothing much. Probably arriving in Victoria, even though I didn't intend to go ashore there.
During the time we were at sea, we could feel the temperature rising hour by hour. By the late afternoon, I was wandering around in my raincoat (it was still a bit drizzly) but with no sweater underneath.
I even got to spend a couple of hours sitting on deck reading and writing in my travel journal! I'd tried it earlier in the week but it was far too cool.
I'll bet I've walked 30 or 40 miles this week, between shore excursions and the multitudes of trips around the ship (four laps of the promenade = 1 mile). It's lovely to walk somewhere where the scenery is always changing.
Alaska Cruise – Day 6 (Ketchikan)
There's a species of crab apple tree that grows in the aptly named Misty Fjords. The fruit is so bitter that even after it ripens, the birds and animals won't eat it. It stays on the trees until it rots and ferments.
Then the ravens gather for a drunken feast.
Travel is very educational.
Today's total: One humpback whales, two or three eagles, and one brown bear! That was our only bear on the trip, but it was cool to see it.
No time for shopping, our shore excursion went from 7:00 a.m. until 12:15 and the ship was scheduled to leave port at 12:30. A pity since Ketchikan looked like a nice little place to stroll around.
The weather was cold, rainy, and gray. Much like the rest of the trip. However I didn't really care. There were fjords, wildlife, and tons of waterfalls, so I was enchanted.
This was the one day I wouldn't have minded wearing a slightly heavier jacket, though. For some reason I chose the lighter of my two jackets that morning, not realizing we'd have a cold, hour-long trip from port to the fjords themselves. The catamarans were very comfy and cosy inside but I didn't come to Alaska to sit inside a heated cabin and look out through a window. I can get that effect from watching television. I liked being out in the elements.
However, it does have to be said that the first shore excursion was by far the most exciting. Maybe because we saw so many whales? I didn't expect humpback whales to be the high point of the trip, but they definitely were.
Alaska Cruise – Day 5 (Sitka)
The destination the R.C. and I were least excited about on the cruise (we picked this specific cruise because it visited Glacier Bay) has fulfilled its promise and thrilled neither of us.
The R.C.'s long-awaited visit to the Raptor Center was a scant 55 minutes where she wanted at least 2 hours. In fact, her description made me jealous that I hadn't selected that excursion myself, but I was determined to see sea otters. (We saw a television special on them before we left on the cruise, and I thought they were just too adorable to be true.)
My Wildlife and Sea Otter Quest produced both (sea lions, harbor seals, a humpback whale, a black-tailed deer, sea otters, bald eagles, and a veritable university of salmon), so why did I almost fall asleep at one point?
Possibly because today's boat captain had an obsession with fishing. We stopped and watched four or five different boats and received much the same explanation of what they were doing each time.
The sea otters were darling and I wanted to take them all home with me. They frolicked and played and generally acted as if they were aware of the cameras. Sea lions, when asleep on the rocks on a gray, wet day, just sort of look like more rocks, heaped up here and there. As do harbor seals.
The part I enjoyed most was riding the ship's tender into town an hour early so I could walk around and do a little souvenir shopping before the boat trip. Although I'd dressed carefully for that day's excursion, so that I wouldn't have to carry a purse, I wound up buying two books (I knew unpacking four of the books I'd planned to bring would be a disaster) and a few postcards.
We've been eating mostly in the ship's buffet restaurant. They do a good job there, the food is tasty and there's good variety. My only complaint might be that the desserts seem to be getting progressively staler as the trip itself progresses. In spite of what we're told about the all-night bakery working to produce new goodies for us each day, I'm finding myself of the opinion that these bits of cake have been sitting there, waiting to be eaten, for the last five days.
N.B. When next cruising, accept the "old lady" stigma and pack head-scarves. They can't look worse than your hair has this week!
Alaska Cruise – Day 4 (Glacier Bay)
At first it seemed that our journey through Glacier Bay, the much-famed and little-cruised beauty spot, would be a bust. We awoke to impenetrable fog and just the merest suggestion of shapes that might be land off on the horizon.
By 9:00 a.m. the fog had not dissipated, but at least had lifted enough to allow us to view this justifiably famous bay with its turquoise glacier of grand proportion and "calves" littering the waters at its feet. Although much of the water was cloudy (with glacial "flour"), in spots it was clear enough to let us see the larger submerged portions of these calves.
The glacier calved several times during the hour or so we cruised the bay, although I only personally witnessed it twice. (I have a genius for being on the wrong side of the ship at critical moments.)
Calving…a sudden mist, a spray of powder-like snow, then the stately fall of ice into the water that receives its new guest with aplomb, barely granting a ripple of disturbance to acknowledge the moment.
The stately fall of ice – the second of expectant silence, then the roar of "white thunder" as the sound reaches the ship.
I had expected the horizontal striations in the ice, the revealed layers of dirt and rock showing where the glacier had engulfed a few truckloads of earth as it formed, but I hadn't anticipated the vertical chimneys and fissures or the diagonal swatches of black that suggested past conflicts with stubborn outcroppings of rock and soil.
Above the glacier the moss-garden of encroaching vegetation revealed the persistence of plant life, struggling with the ice for dominance.
Aboard the boat, jockeying for position and watching bad manners vie with the blind obstinacy of age, proving that "cruising" is not a past-time limited to the well-bred.
Later, there were orca! "Killer whales" looking very un-killerish, positively frolicking in the water.
Later:
We lunched in the "fancy" dining room. The R.C. finds making conversation with strangers at the table difficult. Oddly enough I, although in general much less easy with strangers, had no such problem. I found our companions charming and the food delicious.
Also, we did laundry. Knowing there were laundry facilities on-board (although expensive ones!) helped a lot with the packing, but I don't dry most of my clothes at home. There's no point…in Colorado's dry air, even jeans air-dry in three or four hours. Now I'm wondering how long it's going to take in Alaska's water-soaked air?
Still Later:
Rougher seas again. Forget the amenities of the luxury cabins – the greater stability of the lower decks is a blessing. Whenever I get that drunken-headed feeling, I go lay down for a while.
If it's evening, I get to see what kind of towel origami the steward has created for me that day. We've had a fish, an anteater (although the R.C. insists it was meant to be a moose), and I can't remember what-else. Very adorable.
Posted by AnneZook at 05:47 PM | Comments (0)Alaska Cruise – Day 3 (Juneau)
The weather continues cool and foggy. Even rainy.
It's about 8:00 p.m. and I'm sitting in a deck chair listening to dozens of mad salmon doing bellyflops in the water around the ship. (I can't imagine why the harbor isn't wall-to-wall fishermen!) There are hundreds of the fool fish our there – you can see them schooling around in the water.
I also can't figure out why only 6 of the ship's 1,400+ passengers are interested enough to come out and see the sight? It's really rather amazing.
Today's excursion was the Mendenhall Glacier and Wildlife Quest. We started at about 12:30, headed via bus to our catamaran, then up through a place I've already forgotten the name of (Stephen's Crossing?) in search of…or in Quest for Wildlife.
What we found were humpback whales, singly and in pods. We were lucky enough to see that only-in-Alaska phenomenon, the bubblenet feeding.
This pod had 6-7 whales. All but one of them dives in a group to the bottom of the water, then they spout a circle (net) of bubbles, entrapping a school of herring and forcing them toward the surface. The remaining whale circles the column of bubbles and reinforces them as they rise. This, I believe, is also the 'lead singer' of the pod and the one who sings the instructions to the others.. As the herring reach the surface, the entire pod of whales lunges up after them and scoops up huge mouthfuls of food. We saw them do it several times and the goat guide assured us that only a few whales have the "lead singer" abilities to coordinate such a cooperative effort.
We saw a few sea lions but as they were curled up in a heap, sleeping on a buoy, they were insufficiently "wild" to generate much enthusiasm in my heart.
We also saw 8 or 10 bald eagles, mostly just hanging out in trees and waiting for something edible to appear. Looking, I might add, rather snooty.
Then, on to Mendenhall Glacier. This was one of the sights we were most looking forward to but, IMO, it palled in comparison to the whales.
Still. The glacier was surprisingly pretty, what with being blue, white, and turquoise and all. We didn't se any calving but t6here were a lot of recently calved chunks floating around in the bay.
The area was copiously supplied with signs discussing the glacier, the vegetation cycle that appears in deglaciated sites (this glacier has been "in retreat" since the 1700s), and the wildlife we might be lucky enough to see. We did see a beaver dam, but no actual wildlife materialized.
There was a truly breathtaking waterfall but we couldn't get close to it.
Back to Juneau where before we reboarded the ship, we decided to do a bit of souvenir shopping. Not so much for ourselves as for coworkers and our mother. We found gifts for Mom, the R.C. took care of some of her co-worker gifts, and I bought a gorgeous pair of ivory (one assumes, the non-protected kind) earrings for myself.
The R.C. was ready to go out again after we finished dinner (back on board) but my feet, after spending 2-1/2 hours standing on a steel deck, then an hour clambering paths across from the glacier, then another half-hour wandering around town, had had enough.
Alaska Cruise – Day 2 (Somewhere at sea)
At 8:30 a.m. it was sunny, windy, and hazy.
At 11:30 a.m., it's gray and foggy.
The ship's horn mourns a warning every few minutes. Betware. We're coming.
I already have a favorite place on the ship, the Crow's Nest bar at the top. Comfy chairs and a fabulous view. Right now it's closed because of a private party. Very annoying.
Later:
Very uneventful day. Many walks on deck to enjoy the feeling of cruising (even in wet, gray weather).
The ship continues to roll in the choppy seas. It's an odd sensation. It's like being drunk in your head without any of the physical euphoria. Or maybe it's like being drunk in your body, but with your head clear?
We saw fish. Mackerel? Halibut? And something that blew water. The R.C. says whales but me, I think maybe a dolphin. (Or a porpoise. I can't remember which is northern and which is southern.) Either way…our first Northern Wildlife!
Posted by AnneZook at 07:44 PM | Comments (0)Alaska Cruise – Day 1 (Seattle)
Okay, then. We're on our way, after a year of planning and anticipation!
So far:
Rise at 4:15 a.m. Shower, drink coffee, do hair, drink coffee, dress, drink coffee. (Not that much different than a usual day, if you don't count doing it all three hours earlier than normal.)
At the airport, I was personally thrilled to discover that Alaska Airlines flies on time! That sort of thing is such a pleasure for someone who usually flies United's less schedule-conscious skies.
A bit of a mix-up at Seattle's Sea-Tac where an announcement repeat5edly (and unconvincingly) assured us that they have no way of telling which carousel will spit out your luggage, then we dropped our bags at one end of the (thankfully, not large) airport and walked to the other end just in time to catch the shuttle to the ship's embarkation point.
Our luck was ho9lding – ours was the first bus to arrive and a scant 20 minutes later, we were among the first to board! (So much for the books the R.C. read that warned us to be prepared for hours-long waits to get on and off the ship.)
But…. No! Forget that dry catalog of events . As I rest here stretched out on my queen-sized bed, enjoying the comfort of central air-conditioning – somehow yet I still understand how early explorers must have felt, because outside my window the ocean flows past and under me and beyond that the coast of Washington is shrouded in impenetrable trees with a look that is at once lush and daunting. If I squint, I can see past the scattered proof of "civilization's" impact on this coastland to catch a glimpse of the uncharted mystery that must have beckoned centuries ago.
More prosaically, I think I walked 10 miles today exploring the ship, I've had four meals so far and another one isn't completely out of the question, if I'd known the cabin was going to come equipped with a TV and DVD player I might have packed differently, I wish I had packed differently enough so that all my clothes had not arrived crushed, and turn-down service with someone to leave you a chocolate and fill your ice bucket every night is just lovely.
It seemed to take a long time to get to the cruising part of this cruise today but now it's all worth it.
Under the heading of "things you would not believe"?
The lifeboat drill. Forget what they tell you about cold, rainy Seattle. There was blazing hot sunshine, they yammered on and on, giving a speech much like the one none of us listen to on airplanes (I wasn't really listening) with an endless addition about how all of this was for our safety, and we had to stand there forever while those who assumed "mandatory" did not include them were rounded up and herded, sheepish and embarrassed by the angry mutters of their sweating co-passengers, into place.
In other news, I'm happy to report that the coffee on board the ship, while not Starbucks, is exceptionally good. An Italian roast that, even in the restaurants, manages to be dark and flavorful without tasting burnt.
8:35 p.m.
What a cute, little red boat! When you leave U.S. waters and sail into Canadian waters, you trade your U.S. pilot for a Canadian one. This is accoplished via a bright red boat labeled, "PILOT." I understand that piracy has not been wiped out in parts of the world, so this is probably a wise labeling choice.
4:31 a.m.
It's not really dark dark. Must be the ship's lights. We're rolling a bit.
Back the end of the month.
Be careful out there.
Posted by AnneZook at 03:49 PM | Comments (1)Tasks list completed (except for writing that one check). Today's Wig-Out items handled. That one inevitable "forgotten" project that resurfaced done. Last-minute mailing finished. Things to be done while I'm gone prepped, explained, and laid out in order. Any and all personal items removed from desk drawers (he's the snoopy type.) Outlook out-of-office message written and ready to be turned on.
In spite of all Chaos Boy and the accumulated forces of entropy could throw at me, I'm ready to stand up and leave the office!
I can't, because I have another 1-1/4 hour to get through, but I'm ready when the time comes.
Today, Bernie asked me how to: (1) print a letter, (2) use a luggage cart, (3) and put something in the mail.
Then he loaded up boxes on the luggage cart and took them out to his car, so he could drop them off at the client's tomorrow. Five minutes later he pulled the whole load back in and confessed that he forgot he'd taken the bus today.
I'm starting to get a little worried about how he's going to fare while I'm gone, you know?
Then he informed me that he'd be sending me to Larimer Square to buy some weirdo gimmick gift he wanted to send to a potential client.
(I evinced no enthusiasm. My excitement over going out and running around town during a workday ebbed as gasoline climbed over $3/gallon and the thermometer over 95 degrees.)
(He subsequently decided to do it himself, tomorrow. It's amazing how much less "urgent" some of these rush-rush-rush projects are when he has to do them himself.)
Also, when a client said they didn't have time to do an add-on survey project, he badgered them until they threw some questions at him. When they didn't respond to his request for answers, he made some up.
I understand that the more surveys we do for a client, they more they pay us, but I think he really crosses the line sometimes. If he hadn't forgotten about this project until two days ago, it could have been done two weeks ago, and done properly.
I guess it's partly my fault. The lines aren't really clear where what he intends to take responsibility for ends and my responsibility begins. I've thought a time or two about talking to him about it, but I know that it will inevitably lead to the revelation that he wants to be done with the clients after he gets their signature on an Agreement and I'm not prepared to let that be said, finally and completely. There is only one of me, and I am the last remaining employee in a company set-up that now has three "owners". There are days when the mindless clerical shit eats up six hours of my day. I can't commit to actually doing the job he hired me to do because I frequently just don't have time.
Also, since I'm seriously considering leaving after my vacation, I have a vague feeling that it's "unfair" of me to start things I don't intend to finish. He needs to keep his hands on all of these projects so he will know where everything stands after I'm gone (hopefully without a huge delay).
Right now, he's out there walking two blocks in the 90-degree heat so he can buy something he just decided is critically important to make a job that doesn't start for two weeks to be successful. Anyone else would have waited until they had their car, or the temperature dropped to around 75, which it's supposed to do in a couple of days.
Weirdo.
C-2! Two more days!
Major tasks left undone: Laundry, put Mom's address and the L-i-K-S address in my stripped-down wallet so I can send postcards, get cash from the bank, call and arrange for a cab at 5:45 a.m. on Friday.
And.
Decide what clothes to take.
Update: Okay, so I'm sitting here trying to work my way through a horrendously complicated charting program and he's interrupting me every ten seconds because he wants something printed. And then he decided to print it himself rather than wait ten minutes, but he couldn't figure out how, so I had to go teach him.
And then he wanted me to send a fax but it could not, could not, no, could not wait ten minutes, so he faxed it himself, then he came back and interrupted me again to say he wanted me to call her and make sure the client received the fax. And then he interrupted me again to say he watched the fax machine and it said it went through.
FYI, these were copies of documents the client told him earlier today that she'd received.
Boy, am I glad it's almost time to leave.
(P.S. Just FYI, comments will be closed tomorrow and remain closed for the duration of my absence. I have no intention of allowing the sp*mmers to go mad at my expense while I'm gone.)
Bernie's in a snit. Again.
We paid a vendor, the check was written and mailed on 6/21. Today they told us they didn't get it.
He's blaming me.
Without going into tedious details, let me mention that when I tell you a bill was paid via check #such-and-such? If you go look at the checkbook yourself, I'm going to assume you're assuming I'm just wantonly lying to you. And it's going to piss me off.
Also he's mad at me because when he "does the books" on the weekends, he doesn't bother to reconcile the bank statement and check to see what checks have been cashed or deposited and suchlike, so he didn't know this check wasn't ever cashed.
Precisely how the post office presumably losing a check or him not "doing the books" in the approve manner are my fault is a mystery to me, but he's been slamming around here, muttering under his breath for 20 minutes.
C-THREE!
There are many of them. Things I need to do, I mean. Sadly, only two of them are work-related at the moment. Thanks to a massive push last week, I have everything done I wanted to accomplish before I went on vacation.
(Well, okay, one project didn't get done, but that was the client's fault. And the due date for it was pushed back to 8/3, so getting it done when I get back won't be a problem.)
Now, what am I going to put on my timecard for the next day and a half? I have no idea.
I have a check to write and a phone call to make. Somehow I think putting each of those down on my timecard for 6 hours will cause comment. I have a sort of research thing I could do for the bookkeeping, but charging even as little as half an hour to it is really stretching things.
(Okay, I went away and did it. Seven minutes. This timecard thing is turning me into an awful liar.)
I guess I'll think of something I can actually do around here. Eventually.
Last night I accomplished very little on my cruise To Do List. I got my immigration paperwork and express boarding pass stuff done online, though. Those were crucial.
I didn't even look at the suitcase until I tripped over it at bedtime. At some point, I really do have to start thinking about what clothes to take. Toiletries are simple. I take what I use at home every day, and I have travel-sized bottles that I always use, so I just need to toss those in a bag. My brain is having a lot of trouble wrapping itself around the concept that I might be cold on this trip, though. Every time the thought of clothes wanders across my mind, I find myself mentally weighing shirts and pants, trying to decide what are the most lightweight items I own.
If it wasn't for the whole "aggravation with customs forms" thing, I'd try to talk the R.C. into taking the portable DVD player and a handful of DVDs. I don't normally watch much television, but I have been thinking that 8 days without might be a bit of a dry spell. I think they offer movies on the cruise, though. They have a little theatre or something. That would be more sensible, just to go there if I'm feeling deprived and if they're showing anything worth seeing. Right?
(You see? I tried to think about clothes and immediately my brain strayed off into thoughts of movies and entertainment.)
You can eat as often as ten times a day you know. As someone who has been on and off and on again with a diet for three years, I find this idea exciting. I'm not actually going to eat that often, but I have been in training. We went to the mountains on Sunday and had lunch at a hotel buffet and I ate six desserts!
The R.C. is taking a pair of binoculars, but I'm not. I intend to be Unencumbered With Stuff.
(Thought of another work-thing I could do. Did it. Four minutes.)
I've cleaned out my purse (partly) and put my Absolute Necessities in a very small wallet to leave room for the inevitable water bottle in the purse (during shore excursions), and I expect that I won't even have to carry the purse on board the ship. They don't accept money for anything, you charge everything to your room, so I don't need anything but some lip gloss for wandering around on-board the ship itself. If the entire world crumbles and civilization falls apart at the seams, I'll feel prepared as long as I have some lip gloss.
Something in the computer server closet just went beeeeeeep!
Why does this always happen on Friday afternoons, when I'm the only one here? I mean, beyond the fact that I'm always the only one here on a Friday afternoon. But why every Friday?
Sigh. This morning, I spent an hour writing a blog entry (and here I am, writing another one) and now I'm trying to figure out how to code that time on the stupid timesheet. I covered 30 minutes of it with "project review" but the other 30 minutes is going to be a problem.
If I hadn't turned in more than 8 hours a day almost every day this week, I'd be feeling guilty.
Maybe I'll just put 30 minutes for "dinking around" on my timesheet and see what Bernie has to say?
Dinner out with a friend (well, a couple) tonight means I'll miss the premier of Stargate Atlantis, but the R.C. is going to tape it for me.
Although we were just in Blackhawk for gambling very recently (a month or so ago), we're seriously thinking about going up tomorrow anyhow. It's supposed to be 100 here in Denver, making it one of those days when we are really going to regret that we didn't move somewhere with central air. Rather than waste the whole 2-3 hours we generally spend up there gambling, maybe we'll do the bus ride from Blackhawk to Central City this time and then walk the gentle 1.5 miles back. We've been wanting to do that.
At some point, I need to clean house (mostly floors) and do laundry. The R.C. insists that I haven't actually vacuumed in months (she's been doing it), so I need to vacuum. (And take out trash. Sigh. How can someone who never shops and hasn't actually cleaned house in two weeks have so much trash that needs to be carried out? Trash, like laundry, is a never-ending chore.) (Well, so is cleaning the house. "Woman's work is never done.")
Sunday, possible brunch with friends.
Also on the schedule - 1 hour dithering madly over bookshelves. What to take? What to take?
Busy weekend.
Cruise-prep also includes getting my prescriptions refilled. And digging through the cedar chest for a couple of sweaters to toss in my suitcase. And a manicure, in the sense of just cutting my nails completely back so I won't have to worry about them on the cruise.
I've been making a list (she said, proudly) for the last year of the last-minute things we don't want to forget about. Like taking all the kitchen trash/garbage out. Rinsing out the coffee pot on the morning itself. Getting the mail held for a week Leaving myself with a clean bathroom and clean sheets on the bed, for my return. Not leaving myself with a bunch of dirty laundry to return home to. Watering the plants really thoroughly, so they'll survive a week without me. Turning off and even unplugging unneeded electronics, including both computers, the microwave, the various clocks, etc. (And, with the R.C.'s recent experience, I'm considering adding a few flood damage prevention measures to my list.)
There are many things in life that make me happy. Making lists and then ignoring them is one.
Ahhh.... What a virtuous feeling. Last night I did the laundry (well, most of it) and spent an hour and a half cross-referencing files so I could fix that mistake I mentioned before.
Today I feel all smug, like I'm finally getting on top of things. (Anyone want to take bets on whether it's the calm before the storm?) Nothing like "sacrificing" a few of your leisure hours to make your own life run smoother. Last night's plan of not even sitting down until the "chores" were done worked well.
Got a cranky broadcast e-mail from the property managers yesterday saying everyone should shut up, the A/C is fixed, and the building would start to be cooler today. Fortunately I didn't take too much on faith and I'm wearing light clothes. It may be cooler, but it's not a lot cooler.
Due to a "trough" or maybe a "ridge" or something over Utah, our cooler weather is "stalled." Basically this means we're back in the 90s for the rest of this week with a possibility of 100 on Saturday. I've had a fan going on the server closet for three days and I have another one in my own office.
Today's chores include finishing up one coding job and testing it, then running through the 32-step process required to upload a freaking graphic. (I remain bitter about that.)
Also, I need to go to the bank and make that deposit. While I'm out, I should gas up my car. I am, once again, running on fumes. The biggest problem with a gas-efficient car is that I gas up so rarely that I find it hard to remember to watch the gas gauge. (But it's less-efficient in the summer, when I'm running the A/C a lot.)
Actually, I should do that pretty soon. Before it gets hot outside. (Or, I could wait until the end of the day, leave a few minutes early, and do it on the way home.)
Tonight: Cleaning floors, cleaning the kitchen and bathroom counters, doing that last load of laundry, and taking out the trash.
I'm really boring when I'm not aggravated about things, aren't I?
The laundry plan goes well. I went to the bank downstairs and got a roll of quarters.
Still 81 degrees in this stupid office and I'm hot and tired and headachy. I'm a real wimp when it comes to heat.
I would be grateful to be allowed to nap.
Posted by AnneZook at 02:28 PM | Comments (0)I've been here two hours and I've been working steadily. I think it's time to take a break before I over-exert or something.
Especially since the A/C in our office suite doesn't seem to be working and a lot of what I'm doing today is pretty active.
I mean, I am sweating. Actually sweating. Is this why I put up with the low pay and high aggravations of a white-collar job? I think not.
The weekend was...uneventful. I spent a lot of time curled up and reading since it was cool and raining all weekend. Not rainy, but actually raining 95% of the time, which is extraordinarily unusual for Colorado in July.
Since the workweek started, of course, it's been hot and dry.
digression:
Read-receipts on e-mail are interesting. Someone tells you they've been "out of the office" for days and that's why they haven't given you some piece of information you urgently need...but you have a read-receipt that tells you they did, in fact, read the e-mail the same day you sent it.
I'm half-tempted to send this month's clients a note informing them that I'm going on a cruise next week and if they want their projects ready for them before I leave, they'd better start responding to my requests immediately. I have seven working days left (C-10!), which is enough time to get it all done, but only if the clients do their part. I cannot accomplish it all next Wednesday.)
/digression
HollandAmerica is a big fat cheat. I went online last night to book my shore excursions and their website was down, leaving only a note for us to all try back in a day or so. (The first person who tells me I shouldn't have waited until the last possible day gets it in the teeth.)
So, now the R.C. is pre-booked for everything we want to do and I'm going to have to suffer through stupid presentations. I'm a touch cranky about that but in my heart I know this is one of the perils of procrastination.
I have a handful of oddball chores I need to do.
I need to go to Ace Hardware and find some...well, some hardware to assemble some comment card attachments.
I need to hit the bank and make a deposit for the office.
I think I'll leave early today and do both of those. Then maybe I can get to the stuff I'm interested in getting done.
For instance, I need to go to the laundromat some day soon. I have so much over-sized (comforter, etc.) and bulk (2 sets of sheets, a dust ruffle, towels, rugs, and a bag o'clothes) to be laundered that I'll never get it done otherwise.
I need to spend two hours cross-referencing Word documents and spreadsheets so I can fix a mistake I made two weeks ago. I'm going to take that project to the laundromat with me and unless some wave of hopeless laziness comes over me in the next six hours, get it all done tonight.
I need to clean my bathroom because it's disgusting (I didn't get to it on Sunday) and also the kitchen floor.
I need to take six boxes o'unloved books to the library and donate them, whether the library wants them or not.
I can do both of those tomorrow.
I need to spend a lot less time reading fanfic and a lot more time maintaining my lifestyle in the evenings this week. After the orgy of reading I've been indulging in for the past week, things are starting to fall apart. (Well, okay. Some of that laundry has been waiting a bit longer than that.) I'd sort of forgotten how time-consuming fandom can be, even if you're just consuming and not producing. At this point, I'm hoping like heck I don't get the urge to write anything any time soon. I just don't have time to live in an alternate universe right now.
You laid off the tech person with the excuse that we didn't have work for a full-time tech person.
Now that we no longer have a tech person, I am not going to be happy when you call me on the phone and ask why I can't keep the network running.
I am not your network administrator. I was not hired to be a network administrator and if I did know how to do that stuff, I'd be charging you twice as much as I am to employ me.
Yes. The network is down this afternoon. What a pity.
Have a nice weekend.
No love,
Me
P.S. Stop telling me to call this, that, or the other person to see if they can fix it and then calling me back in 90 seconds to see if I dialed them. I hate your Friday personality.
Posted by AnneZook at 05:05 PM | Comments (2)If only it weren't for clients, I'd be so ahead of the work curve right now. I have what I can do of the projects due before I leave town done. Sadly, because the work we're doing for clients doesn't seem to be at the top of anyone's list of priorities, none of these projects are "done" done.
I could, and probably will, go dabble with getting the hardware sorted out and tested today. First, though, I Blog. (Pondering.... How will I code this time? I already have "filing" on today's timesheet.)
Today is reasonably peaceful. I'm noticing it particularly because DiamondGirl was in for two hours yesterday and even though she and Bernie didn't squabble, there was still an amazing amount of tension in the air.
Also, I'm noticing it because when Bernie left yesterday, he said, "see you Tuesday or Wednesday" which means I have two, or maybe three, glorious work-days without him on-site. Not that I mind him being here. (Without DiamondGirl, he's still a touch lunatic, but not as psychotic.)
It's just that I'm generally so much more productive without him around. I do have one project remaining that's something I haven't done before and that will probably take a good portion of my available brain-power to complete successfully since it requires me to create the exact same product for two different delivery methods. (But I can't do it unless I received the client's approval first, so I can't work on it today.)
And Monday is Bookkeeping Day. Blech. But, again, easier if I have the peace and quiet to really focus on what I'm doing.
I haven't been online much in the evenings recently. What with the Great Afghan Project (now in its second stage) and all, I mostly find myself reading in the evenings. I can read while my hands are crocheting, but it's not so easy to surf the net without using your hands. Currently I'm trying to teach myself not to look at my hands as I crochet. Since I've done approximately 10,000 of the precise same stitch, the precise same pattern, I shouldn't need to look at it.
That also means I haven't been practicing my sketching in the evenings, which is, as you might expect, wreaking havoc with my learning curve. Sketching, like crocheting, is largely a matter of practice. Muscle-training. I'm going to have to rearrange my evening schedule to allow for at least an hour a day for practice.
I'm not sure I actually had anything to say today. Sigh. Sometimes it really does seem to me that I'm the only person in this company who actually shows up every day, and works (pretty much) all day. By 4:00, I'm invariably sitting here alone. Some days it's okay because I have a lot to do. Some days, like today, I'm fairly certain I should be doing something, but I can't think of what it might be.
The R.C. was all virtuous last night and actually did her excursion reservations. Leaving me as the only slacker. Typical.
It turns out that the ship excursions are mostly scheduled to begin at 7:00 a.m., which sucks on so many levels. In fact, they're mostly scheduled to begin the instant the ship docks.
Me, I find it bizarre that if the ship is going to be in port from 7:00 a.m. until 5:00 a.m., that they couldn't pick a more reasonable excursion start time than 7:00 a.m. We're supposed to be on vacation.
Since we all know, from our reading, that they warn you to allow up to an hour to disembark and two hours to re-embark in a port, this either means we have to queue up at or before 6:00 a.m. and then add two hours to the length of the "day" for getting back on the ship, or it's all a lie and the excursions aren't really intended to leave at those times and they're just saying that to try and get everyone up to scratch by, let's say, 8:00 a.m. or something.
And since, by and large, most of the excursions are already penciled in to be 4 or 5 hours long, that makes an 8-hour day out of an "excursion" that, I'm beginning to suspect, consists of two hours' of doing something and endless hours of getting to and from.
The next time we buy Alaska, we should get it pre-shrunk, that's all I'm saying.
Also, the R.C. printed out the 10-day weather forecast for the ports we're visiting. Granted, it doesn't cover our actual trip time, but one presumes that it provides an insight into the weather we should expect, right?
Showers. Rain. Light showers. Light rain. Rain. Showers. Showers. Showers. Changes of precipitation ranging from 30% to 90%. Sheesh.
Maybe I should have bought two raincoats?
One thing I'm sure of. I don't have enough socks. I'm going to want plenty of dry socks. And plenty of pairs of shoes to change into with that much moisture pouring down all over.
That's short for "Cruise, minus 16 days."
I haven't talked much about the cruise, I know.
Part of me feels an obscure guilt around not inviting my mother to go. She used to talk about taking a cruise like this, but I know she can't afford it any more, we didn't have the extra $4k or so to pay for her ticket and expenses, and I'm not sure we could have gotten her on a plane to go anyhow. She's become very reluctant to travel in the last few years. (Or, very reluctant to visit us, maybe.)
Anyway. I finally told her we were going last night. I got the distinct impression she would have said, "yes" if invited to go but she also admitted, with some reluctance, that her health problems would have made the excursion tricky.
Nothing serious (I'm hoping madly), just that she's 73 years old. A few digestive problems, high blood pressure, and a heart murmur. I really must go visit my mother some day soon. Maybe over the Labor Day weekend.
Anyhow. Cruisin'!
Tonight's task: Go online and book shore excursions. We've been debating and arguing what to do for a month and we have until Saturday to pre-book. Since the R.C. is leaving for a business trip on Saturday, we're going to do it tonight.
They do have 'presentations' the first night of the cruise and you can pick what you want then, but I have no intention of spending my first night on the ship sitting in a slideshow, listening to canned sales pitches.
(Bernie's such a geek. He just came and asked me if I have another blade for the paper cutter. It's a $10 paper cutter. You don't replace the blade. You sharpen it or buy a new one.) (Besides, what did he think? That I, for some psychotic reason, had a spare paper cutter blade in my back pocket?)
Anyhow. We know what we want to do.
We have, as you might expect from us, been shopping madly (I mean, we shop madly anyhow, but with an excuse like this, we've been extra-mad in some ways.) over the last couple of months. Raincoats, clothes, toiletries, insect repellent, umbrellas, binoculars, travel gadgets, books, younameit.
Actually, that sounds worse than it is. :) We've been shopping madly, but we haven't really been buying madly. There's not really anything we've purchased (besides the insect repellent) that we can't use normally.
With 16 days to go, it's time to start watching the temperatures along the Alaskan coast and laying out sweaters, putting them away, and getting them out again. Medication refills, getting my roots touched up, reminding Bernie daily that I'll not only be out of the office but completely out of touch for 10 days, sending my mother and L-i-K-S the shipboard phone info in case of emergency....
(Okay, now he sent me an e-mail, then ran in from his office to ask if I'd received it yet and when I hadn't, he ran back to his office and sent it two more times, yelling out to ask me each time if I'd gotten it yet, then coming into my office to check for himself the last time, that I wasn't lying to him.)
I really can't focus on writing blog entries with these kinds of lunatic interruptions.
But a trifle aggravated.
If you provide me with a list of names and addresses and ask me to prepare mailing labels for a sales mailing to go out, I will, in fact, do so.
If you subsequently provide me with three letters that I have to argue with you over in order to get you to acknowledge and correct errors in, and then I print said letters from the list of names & addresses you provide with them...and they prove not to match the mailing labels you previously provided, I will, in fact, become aggravated in a minor sort of way.
And, yes, you will then have to pay me for twice the amount of time it takes to print mailing labels because I had to throw the first batch away, you see.
Also? If you decline to let me order toner for the printer because one of these days you're going to order toner from a cheaper place on-line? I will not be able to print until such time as you actually get around to ordering the toner and we receive it. So, get a move on.
That is all.
___________________________________
P.S. You know what I like? I like a boss who says, "As far as today, goes, you can leave whenever you're done with what you're doing."
I especially like if it he's just handed me about 20 hours worth of work.
He's a nice kind of dork, but he's a dork.